Image of the Week: 6-13-14

After making it back from a little family vacation, I had a hard time this week choosing the top 5 since there were many great images out there. Congratulations to Leeboy for his image “Vestige,” it is a very simple image, but it conveys a sense of peace and tranquility. I like to think of it as a visual haiku if that makes sense. There is a lovely purposefulness to it that I really like. Well done. It leaves me in a state of peace.

James Quantz Jr. goes historic on us with “Looking for the British,” and it is a wonderful image that feels like a still shot from a movie. The lighting, the haze and the character of the actor/model all come together to make a great shot. I cannot tell a lie… I like this shot.

Sandypentax uses a Nikon to capture a great image called “whitepair.” What attracts me to this image is the detail… the look on the faces of the two men, the whitewater and the processing all give the feeling of intensity and competition. You can sense the battle against the clock. In sports shooting, it is all about conveying the moment and the feeling, and Sandy nailed it. I like your stream of consciousness.

Kim Slonaker gets nosy with “Kitty up close.” Whenever you can give the viewer an unexpected angle of something commonplace it will grab their attention. Great composition, depth of field and detail of a subject that most of us are really familiar with, but will found ourselves saying… “I wish I had thought to take a shot like that.” Excellent work Kim! (Insert any of a myriad of cat/whisker/meow puns of your choosing here… since there are too many for me to pick!)

David Arellano goes for the heart in “Skip a beat,” and gives us a crisp, beautiful headshot. Besides the obvious attractive model, the lighting is really well done and the detail in the eyes just grabs you. Every eyelash is perfect and the skin is flawless, but not plastic. Too often the skin will be retouched too much and it looses all the pores and kills the image but if you look closely there is still detail in the skin. David gives us a master class in how to light/shoot and retouch and image. If you don’t like this image check your pulse. (Ok, that pun was a little sad… I will do better next time…:D)